Kenneth Arnold
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 6
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 2 events, 1947–1951 |
Kenneth Arnold (1915–1984) was an American businessman and private pilot from Boise, Idaho, whose sighting of nine fast-moving objects near Mount Rainier, Washington, on 24 June 1947 launched the modern UFO era and gave rise to the term "flying saucer".[1][2]
The sighting
Arnold sold fire-control equipment and flew his own CallAir A-2 aircraft around the Northwest. On the afternoon of 24 June 1947, flying from Chehalis to Yakima, Washington, he joined the search for a Marine Corps C-46 transport that had crashed near Mount Rainier. At about 3 p.m., near Mineral at about 9,200 feet, he saw bright flashes and then nine objects flying in a chain between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. He described them as thin and flat, moving with a weaving, flipping motion, with one appearing crescent-shaped.[1]
Using the clock on his instrument panel, he timed the objects across the roughly 50 miles between the two mountains at 1 minute 42 seconds, which worked out to more than 1,700 miles per hour; he cautiously rounded his estimate down to about 1,200 mph, still far faster than any aircraft of the time. He judged them to be perhaps 100 feet long or more.[1]
"Flying saucers"
After landing in Yakima and then Pendleton, Oregon, Arnold told people what he had seen. Reporter Bill Bequette of the East Oregonian wrote the first story, published on 25 June, and the reporters found Arnold credible. From 26 June newspapers across the country used the phrase "flying saucer". Arnold later said he had been misunderstood: he had said the objects moved like a saucer skipped across water, not that they were shaped like saucers.[1][2] His report was followed by hundreds of others across the United States that summer.[3]
Official and skeptical views
Army Air Forces investigators who interviewed Arnold found him sincere. Publicly the Army Air Forces concluded the sighting was a mirage, but internally intelligence analysts listed it as unexplained, and it contributed to the creation of Project Sign.[1][4] Proposed explanations have included mirages caused by temperature inversions, a meteor, a formation of white pelicans, and snow blowing off mountain ridges; none is universally accepted.[1]
Later life
Arnold became involved in investigating other reports that summer, including the Maury Island case near Tacoma, later considered a hoax. In 1952 he co-wrote The Coming of the Saucers with publisher Ray Palmer. He came to suspect that UFOs might be living creatures rather than machines. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Idaho in 1962. Arnold died in 1984.[2][5]
On the UAP Timeline
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- Garrett's suspicion of secret U.S. tests (1947) (19 August 1947) — An Air Force officer tells the FBI he suspects secret U.S. military tests explain some flying disc reports.
- Urner Liddel's Skyhook balloon explanation (27 February 1951) — A Navy physicist publicly says all UAP reports are mirages or balloons.
References
- Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Megan Garber, "The Man Who Introduced the World to Flying Saucers", The Atlantic (15 Jun 2014) · theatlantic.com · archived copy
- Erik Lacitis, "'Flying saucers' became a thing 70 years ago Saturday with sighting near Mount Rainier", The Seattle Times (24 Jun 2017) · seattletimes.com · archived copy
- John T. Correll, "USAF and the UFOs", Air Force Magazine (1 Jun 2011) · airforcemag.com · archived copy
- Brian Dunning, "Maury Island", Skeptoid #822 (2022) · skeptoid.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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